


Photograph

by novaband



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, The Doctor Remembers, The Eleventh Loved Children's Books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 04:32:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10734180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novaband/pseuds/novaband
Summary: Bill once asked him if photographs really help when someone is gone. In the lonely hours of the evening, the Doctor answers her question.





	Photograph

  
Do photographs really help?

  
One of his thumbs rubbed against the cool glass that protected a monotone photograph from any prints he may leave behind, Susan's brown eyes staring at him, clear as day. If he looked to the left, just a touch, he'd be met with the smiling face of River Song.

  
Susan would have liked River, he thought, setting the picture of his beloved granddaughter beside that of his wife, the thought of them meeting allowing for some amusement. River, all sarcasm and quick wit, meeting her match with the childlike glee of Susan's intellect. An unearthly child indeed.

  
A dusty book was resting just beside the current bookshelf residence of the picture frames, a simple 'Clara' scrawled out over the binding. His hands reached for it next, taking it from the shelves in the hope of finding some clue to the mystery woman who plagued his brain. Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A children's tale, no doubt, with a faded burgundy bow tie hidden in the pages. An interesting bookmark selection made by his former self, he vaguely recalled. That version adored fantasy.

  
He wondered, briefly, as he ran a hand through his curled salt-and-pepper hair, if he had ever taken this Clara person anywhere that resembled the make-believe land in which chocolate was churned by waterfalls and everything was edible. It would hardly surprise him if he had -- but it pained him to imagine finding such a place without being able to bring Susan. She had been quite fond of dark chocolate.

  
In truth, the Doctor didn't know why his fingers were flicking through the pages. A desperate voice in the back of his mind insisted that perhaps Clara, whoever she had been, had left a photograph of herself amidst the whimsy comments. Instead, he only found a note forbidding him from ripping out the last page of this copy, and a joking remark that the 'Candyman' certainly held a resemblance to the Time Lord currently in possession of the novel. He would have to give it another read, see if she was right. 

  
The book was placed back on the shelf beside River and Susan, dusted off and waiting for when he had the time to indulge in a tale meant to stimulate the imagination. For some reason, he had been anticipating stumbling upon Jane Austen instead of Roald Dahl, but his brain could hardly connect why.

  
When they're gone, do photographs help?

  
_His mind ached for a photograph of Clara Oswald to place between Susan and River, just to be able to remember the way she smiled, or in what way her eyes lit up in a given situation_.

  
He'd have to tell Bill, when she finally rolled out of her new bed in his ship, that he could finally answer her question.

  
Photographs hardly eased the pain. They were more of a memorial than a comfort, but they were a welcomed reminder that those we have loved and lossed do not truly leave us.

  
Even a children's book, however, could take a photograph's place in a pinch.

**Author's Note:**

> How the end of the first episode of series ten would have gone -- if I had written it.


End file.
